Ig Nobel prizes check out monkeys’ behinds, spill their coffee

Prizes once again tap a rich vein of science's weird side.

It's now possible to calculate how badly you'll spill your coffee, based on cup shape and walking mechanics.

Wikimedia Commons

With Sweden gearing up to hand out this year's Nobel Prizes, that means it's time for Nobel's more recent cousin, the Ig Nobel, to grab the spotlight and point it at Boston. The Igs, which honor "achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think," are handed out at an elaborate ceremony that involves a mini-opera, lots of paper airplanes, and a handful of Nobel Laureates, who hand out the Ig Nobels to the latest winners.

Unlike the Nobels, which are severely constrained in the awards they can hand out (oh, it's in physics, again) the people behind the Igs have the luxury of being able to make up categories in order to award anything that happens to appeal to them. This year, for example, featured winners in acoustics, fluid dynamics, and anatomy. Without further ado, the winners:

Chemistry: Solving the mystery of green hair. This went to Sweden's Johan Petterson (who attended the ceremony), an environmental engineer who worked for a local council that included a village where the local blonds were having their hair turn green. Petterson identified the culprit as copper piping, and suggested a cure: either shorter or colder showers.

Acoustics: Jamming speech. Both members of this Japanese team, who have developed the SpeechJammer, received their award for a device that plays someone's words back to them after a slight delay, which is enough to throw someone off mentally and get them to stop talking. Possible applications suggested by the developers: a device that will force people in a meeting to speak in turns, and a "Portable speech-jamming gun."

Fluid Dynamics: Walking with coffee. Another 2012 paper, this one with practical applications. "In our busy lives, almost all of us have to walk with a cup of coffee," the text, in Physical Review E begins. "While often we spill the drink, this familiar phenomenon has never been explored systematically." As it turns out, both the specifics of the cup and the biomechanics of walking play a role in making the mess. One of the two authors was there to pick up the prize.

Medicine: Exploding colons. "Colonic gas explosion, although rare, is one of the most frightening iatrogenic complications during colonoscopy." Frightening would not seem to even begin to describe it (incidentally, "iatrogenic" means a complication produced by a medical procedure). Apparently, the combination of a buildup of digestive gasses and electric cauterization is not good for the patient. With a good colonic cleansing, however, it should all be safe.

Anatomy: Your backside looks familiar. Noted primatologist Frans de Waal took home an Ig Nobel for this paper, which involved showing chimps the rear ends of their compatriots and unfamiliar chimps. Chimps were successful at identifying the rears of those they were familiar with.

Psychology: Leaning to the tall side.This one gets bonus points for a key piece of experimental equipment: the Wii balance board. Subjects were stood on the board and asked questions as it imperceptibly leaned them either left or right. The direction of lean apparently altered the answers, leading to the paper's title: "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller."

Neuroscience: The active brain of a dead salmon. This study comes from a journal that sounds like the natural home of Ig Nobel level results: the Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results. But the study, while tongue-in-cheek, has a serious message. Functional MRI machines now have enough resolution that they divide the brain into hundreds of thousands of units, and the large numbers increase the number of false positives that result. "To highlight the danger of this practice," the authors write, "we completed an fMRI scanning session with a post-mortem Atlantic Salmon as the subject."

Peace: Diamonds in the ammo. If Russia's SKN Company had an Internet presence before the awards, it has been completely wiped from the first few pages of Google search results by their new honor. The company, represented by Igor Petrov, took home the prize for figuring out how to extract diamonds from old Soviet ammo.

Literature: Infinite report regression. It's not often that the government gets honored for the quality of its prose, but an analysis from the GAO took home the prize for being "a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports." No surprise that it was occasioned by a policy adopted by the Department of Defense.

As always, the night featured the famous 24/7 lectures, in which experts attempt to describe their research in 24 seconds, then provide a seven word summary appropriate for a general audience. This year's speakers tackled the Universe, arsenic-based life, mass spectrometry, and (from the sound of it) tasering someone.

With these awards out of the way, it's a sure sign that we can expect some announcements from Sweden to be coming our way shortly.

Promoted Comments

nosensewhatsoever - As an author of the salmon paper, I can say that it was honestly the availability of Atlantic salmon at the supermarket in New Hampshire that drove the decision. If/when we replicate the work we will be sure to put in a cross-oceanic comparison group.

27 Reader Comments

I went with THBMan and sweetpepper, and it was a fun time. The opera was about a seamstress who got a commission to make a dress for the universe. sweetpepper and I were chatting about how awesome it is that we live in a place where it's possible to round up a group of Nobel Prize winners that are willing to be silly for a night.

Chemistry: Solving the mystery of green hair. This went to Sweden's Johan Petterson (who attended the ceremony), an environmental engineer who worked for a local council that included a village where the local blonds were having their hair turn green. Petterson identified the culprit as copper piping, and suggested a cure: either shorter or colder showers.

They could have figured that out just by watching episode 92 of Diff'rent Strokes.

I wish these prizes got more recognition in the public mind than they do (which is effectively none, AFAICT). Sure, Nobels are handed out for big, important research; often things which fundamentally altered some aspect of how we understand the universe.

But the Igs present the kind of science that I think can more easily engage people. It's hard for many people to get all that excited about finding the Higgs, despite being bombarded (relatively speaking) with media telling them they should be excited. Ditto finding a galaxy that formed only 5.0 x 108 years after the Big Bang. "Big" science is, often, so far removed from the daily experiences of most people that they end up being just as removed from its excitement.

Explaining why people's hair is turning green in a specific village? That's science which has an immediate and tangible benefit. All the entries on this list seem much more relatable than the LHC, and I can't help but think that's what gets people to see value in science.

The speech jammer shit works, let me tell you. Once when I was bringing my stepdaughter home from her dad's, she was awful mouthy, so as a joke, I called her cell phone from mine, and let the call play over the bluetooth in the car. Every time she spoke, it sounded like a metallic echo down into a deep cavern. She was amusingly quiet for the rest of the drive. I wish I had a way to do that with just a single device though.

The literature one takes the cake (especially if you click on the GAO link). John, I'm not sure how you kept that description straight "a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports", but it's awesome, and way too confusing for me to follow. And of course it's the DoD...

Chemistry: Solving the mystery of green hair. This went to Sweden's Johan Petterson (who attended the ceremony), an environmental engineer who worked for a local council that included a village where the local blonds were having their hair turn green. Petterson identified the culprit as copper piping, and suggested a cure: either shorter or colder showers.

They could have figured that out just by watching episode 92 of Diff'rent Strokes.

What I wonder is why they didn't suggest to change copper plumbing for pvc one.

The biology prize that year, which is awarded from starting 1:21:17 at that video link, is truly one of the funniest things ever anywhere. That dutch scientist really nails down the humour perfectly. Despite doing it in a foreign language.

"To highlight the danger of this practice," the authors write, "we completed an fMRI scanning session with a post-mortem Atlantic Salmon as the subject."

Flippin' East Coast Bias. Why not use the superior Pacific Salmon?

Seriously, got enjoyment from reading this. Some of it looks quite useful (one day I dream of a world where I don't get coffee spilled on me by someone else!) and the rest looks like it may have a use...maybe.

"Neuroscience: The active brain of a dead salmon". Are they sure he wasn't participating in the Salmon Shakespeare Project, in competition with the world's monkeys for the salmonic development of Shakespearian works?

nosensewhatsoever - As an author of the salmon paper, I can say that it was honestly the availability of Atlantic salmon at the supermarket in New Hampshire that drove the decision. If/when we replicate the work we will be sure to put in a cross-oceanic comparison group.

It happens as soon as the delay for the echo of your voice reaches roughly half a second. If you have crappy carrier or is calling really long distance, that happens from time to time (though the echo of your voice will often be cancelled out, the same effects happens when both participants consistently start talking at the same time).

The literature one takes the cake (especially if you click on the GAO link). John, I'm not sure how you kept that description straight "a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports", but it's awesome, and way too confusing for me to follow. And of course it's the DoD...

(1) A REPORT describing how it works:(2) the igNobel Prize REPORTs a Literature Prize describing...(3) a GAO REPORT on the process by which top level managers in agencies evaluate the abilities of their project managers are able to ...(4) create REPORTS describing project budgets which include time spent by employees writing...(5) REPORTS on their activities

The literature one takes the cake (especially if you click on the GAO link). John, I'm not sure how you kept that description straight "a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports", but it's awesome, and way too confusing for me to follow. And of course it's the DoD...

(1) A REPORT describing how it works:(2) the igNobel Prize REPORTs a Literature Prize describing...(3) a GAO REPORT on the process by which top level managers in agencies evaluate the abilities of their project managers are able to ...(4) create REPORTS describing project budgets which include time spent by employees writing...(5) REPORTS on their activities

The Speechjammer won't stop telemarketers, unlike what an earlier poster suggested. I worked the phones at a market research company and used to get my voice echo'ed back at me sometimes, with varying levels of delay. You very quickly adapt and not listen to the echo.

In the U.S. Air Force we were taught to work around the "speech jammer" effect by concentrating on our mouth and jaw motions. It's easy to do with a few minutes practice. Military radio communications are often subject to delay and multiple-delay effects described by other commenters.

While I love the Ig Nobels, sometimes they ridicule things that may sound ridiculous but are actually pretty important. Personally, avoiding having my colon explode during my next colonoscopy is a fairly high priority. Ha ha ha, it's all a fart joke in good fun... until YOUR colon explodes. Which can kill you.